SIMULAÇÃO NUMÉRICA DE VIGA DE CONCRETO PROTENDIDO EM DUPLO BALANÇO UTILIZANDO UM MODELO PROBABILÍSTICO MACROSCOPICO

Resumo

The Double Cantilever Beam (DCB) test has been used in many studies, generally in the framework of Frac-
ture Mechanics, in order to characterizing the concrete fracture under tensile loads. This test provides information,

such as, the critical stress intensity factor and the critical energy release rate, that allows evaluating the toughness

of the material. In this work, a numerical simulation of a prestressed DCB was carried out based on a macrosco-
pic probabilistic model. The macroscopic probabilistic approach is developed in the context of the finite element

method (FEM) and considers that each finite element is represents of a heterogeneous material volume. The proba-
bilistic aspect is introduced in the model by considering random distributions of tensile strength and local cracking

energy at the local scale of the material. That states the cracks are created within the concrete with different energy
dissipation depending on the spatial distribution of constituents and initial defects. To furnish consistent statistical
results, the Monte Carlo procedure is used. Promising results in terms of global behaviour and macrocracking
information in a very large prestressed DCB specimen are presented.